April 19, 2021
Perhaps more than ever in recent history, at-home food preservation has been on the forefront of people’s minds.
By Adriana Janovich, Washington State Magazine
Home canning had already been making a comeback. Then the pandemic hit.
Enjoying a jar of summer sun-ripened peaches in the middle of a freezing February is reason enough to can for Anna Kestell, who has been canning all of her adult life.
“I have to have my peaches,” she said. “They are my most favorite thing. That’s my go-to dessert: my own canned peaches with cream. That’s my comfort food.”
Also comforting: giving her home-canned garden-grown vegetables, jams, and jellies to friends as gifts. Kestell always includes the recipe and processing instructions. In her role as the food preservation and safety outreach educator at Washington State University Extension for Spokane County, she’s been teaching people to can and answering their home-canning and other food preservation questions for
DailyTrib.com Support Community Press You can show your support of a vibrant and healthy free press by becoming a voluntary subscriber. Subscribe Now Diana Castello (left) and Donna Milliron pluck radishes that survived the extreme freezing temperatures in February. Both are members of the Highland Lakes Master Gardener Association. Staff photo by Daniel Clifton
Master Gardeners do more than grow gardens; they grow gardeners. They also grow produce for local food pantries, recruiting and training volunteers to help feed the community and themselves.
The Highland Lakes Master Gardener Association, which has been active in the area since 1998, plants and maintains two food pantry gardens: The Garden Powered by Highland Lakes Master Gardeners at Trinity Episcopal Church in Marble Falls and The King’s Garden in Kingsland. They soon will start a third food pantry garden in Lampasas.
WSU Extension to provide prediabetes risk screening
Published: April 10, 2021, 6:01am
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Washington State University Extension educators will offer virtual prediabetes consultations April 12 and April 15.
People with prediabetes – higher-than-normal blood glucose (sugar) levels – are five to 15 times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those with normal blood glucose levels. About 34.2 million Americans have diabetes. More than 88 million have prediabetes.
Adults with prediabetes can learn to make healthy changes that can cut their risk of Type 2 diabetes in half.
One-on-one, in-person or virtual consultations for helping individuals determine risk for prediabetes are available 3 to 7 p.m. April 12 and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 15.
WSU Extension to provide prediabetes risk screening in Southwest Washington | WSU Insider wsu.edu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wsu.edu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
March 17, 2021
While it’s hard to envision raging forest fires while the Cascade Mountains are covered in deep snow, this year’s wet, warm winter could contribute to yet another round of destructive wildfires.
Washington State University Extension foresters say now is the last chance of the season to prevent and prepare for wildfires, which burned hundreds of thousands of acres, devastated the town of Malden, and caused some of the worst air quality on earth in 2020. WSU experts are helping rural residents get ready for fire season through virtual education sessions on Zoom.
The winter of 2020-2021 has been above average for temperatures. After one of the snowiest Februaries in decades, Washington currently has above average snowpack across most of the region. However, those wet conditions can spur growth of smaller plants in the forest’s understory, which act as tinder in the Northwest’s dry, hot summers. Warmer weather also brings the bark beetle season, in which tiny in